We had a 6 hour bus from Luang Prabang to vang vieng and I felt like crap :(. The Laos countryside is very beautiful and mountainous but the road was very rough. Glad we were sitting near the front. Paid 20,000 kip for the tuk tuk to the guesthouse no it only should have been 10,000 but when you just wana get somewhere to rest your head, we hit went with it. We checked in at a Jammee Guesthouse. The owner was really lovely. Room was fine, bed comfy and wifi was good so we were happy enough. Saw our first advert for the hot air ballooning so we are thinking about it. We found an Irish pub listed so won the hunt for it; Gary's Irish pub that had a guy from Tyrone working on it. I got a cottage pie, which did make me feel a bit better (the wonders on home comforts) and Kenny got steak and ale pie. Then to the Luang Prabang bakery
for a huge muffin; unfortunately looked better than it tasted.

The next day breakfast was good; massive bowl of good museli that I could hardly finish! Score, my favourite. Unfortunately my bowels were giving me jip today so the thought of the planned kayak and tubing adventure just made me nervous. Getting a bit tired of constantly feel sick :( So I didn't go. Kenny went by himself. I slept for some of the morning and started watching Californication. Then decided I should go to the pharmacy to get something for my bloated, crampy tummy. The first woman didn't speak any English and was just showing me tubs of pills including diazepam.
The second woman was better, but selling antibiotics from a corner shop
The next woman at least understood English, looked like a better pharmacy and could tell me how many to take.
Headed to the luang Prabang bakery as decided against street food until I'm better. I sat down to have a look at the menu and order, when an older man asked if I spoke English, then said the same to the girl behind me, and it ended up the three of us sitting to have lunch together. It's funny how is imagined a day all by myself, happily just sitting reading my book, relaxing and I end up making friends. Whereas if I had been sitting feeling lonely, no-one would have came near me lol. There was Gill from the states and Mark from Canada. Gill quit her job to do some travelling including climbing Kilimanjaro and seeing Madagascar. Mark had retired and wanted to ski away the rest of his days but hurt his bad the first day, so went travelling and walked to Camino. It is always interesting talking to other people. Mark stayed an hour or two telling us about some really good travelling apps such as triposo and maps.me. Gill and I chatted for about 4 hours by the time I liked at the clock.
Then remembered that Kenny had no key to get in or money if he was hungry, so headed back. Kenny had a fun day with a group that didn't speak English and sat in a bar with no money for three hours. I know he missed me. We headed back to the Irish pub for dinner and bumped into Rob and Amy. A few drinks led to the bar shutting and then a very random nightclub; clubbing Laos style.

The next day we had decided on renting a motorbike and going to the blue lagoon but half way down the road, we decided we should go tubing, when in vang vieng... We walked down to the tubing shop then decided we had too much stuff with us that would get wet so walked the 25min round trip to guesthouse and back, and eventually got back at 1.10pm to get paid up and into a tuk tuk to the river drop off point. We were greeted by a whiskey shot and a friendship bracelet and an offer of mushrooms, but we decided just to go into the bar. We bumped into Amy, Rob, Sanne, Liv and Lina and we went tubing with them. In we popped into our tubes, the water was pretty cold. And off we went. We had barely even got moving and out a line with a can attached was thrown, to pull us into the next bar. We stayed here for far too long but u always get carried away at the first place. People were playing volleyball in mud upto their knees. I gave that one a miss when I saw the herd of cows nearby. I wonder where that mud came from. The next bar was more lively; everyone dancing on tables, bowling and basketball along with hammocks for those who were drunk already. Also gained another bracelet. Now this is when disaster struck; when jumps into his tube off a high board. Alls good. Then he comes towards me and decided to do some sort of flip thing from his room and he loses his prescription sunglasses. Apparently he fell out, I think he was acting the maggot. Sad times. When we got to the next bar, Kenny went back and tried to find his glasses. He offered 100,000kip ($15) to anyone who found them and he had 8 people diving with just a snorkel mask. Men and children. They brought up like 15 pairs of glasses, but none were his. The place he dropped them was 4-4.5 meters deep whereas there were other areas that your bum was near hitting the ground, typical. By the last bar we were freezing, but luckily they had a fire to try warm us up and we got some chips too. There was one more bar to go but we didn't make it as it was too cold and we ran out of time as the tubes had to be returned by 6pm to get the deposit back. After standing our ground this time, we got the tuk tuks for 10,000 and got the deposit back. Another trip to Gary's Irish pub for dinner made that three nights in a row, with Rob, Amy, Sanne, Liv and Lina. Sawing goodbye to them, hopefully to see them soon.

I always complain that we never watch sunrise (we are far to lazy for that haha) so this had to be a very special occassion. We watched sunrise from a hot air balloon and it was definitely one of my favourites activities so far. It was so peaceful and relaxing, whilst having the odd thought that we were up a few thousand feet in a basket standing on a wooden floor. It was spectacular :) the landing was funny, literally in someone's back garden with all the local kids coming to see the balloon. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face :D absolutely loved it and over beautiful scenery; the mountains, the river and the local town. Another activity ticked off the bucket list and for 80$USD a bargain. We hopped on the next bus to Vientiane shortly after.